Reflecting on the challenge of reinforcing and replenishing community-centred care during covid-19.

Download my 2020 annual review here

In 2020, the power and determination of people around the globe were faced by an unprecedented set of circumstances – the coronavirus pandemic. Reflecting on the challenges that arose, and remembering the many lives affected and tragically lost during this turbulent time, I can conclude that the moving parts of my programmatic and advocacy strategy had intuitively developed the key resilience, innovation and agility required to face the many variations of each day, head on.

To arrive at a place of strength following a journey through unpredictability, shows that we’ve come a long way. From my own personal experiences that structured my philanthropy, to applying learning and knowledge everyday I continued to take every opportunity to advocate for better maternity and health conditions of women, newborns, children and adolescents, and my Wellbeing Foundation Africa reached over 96,000 families, and 62,800 frontline health workers – even during the pandemic.

Armed with decades of frontline experience and informed by the everyday stories of the beneficiaries of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, I am guided by the core themes of WASH, improving the social determinants of health and wellbeing, poverty alleviation, economic empowerment, promoting global public health advances, the rise of women and girls, and harnessing the promise of technology which underpin my broader goal and that of the Wellbeing Foundation Africa, in working to reduce maternal and newborn deaths (SDG 3.1 and 3.2).

I continue to advocate for greater innovation in tackling pressing contemporary topics such as beating non-communicable diseases, improving access to STEM education, maintaining the momentum behind the women’s equality movement, and the call for radical new ways of rebuilding sustainable economies and cleaner environments. As we navigate the coronavirus pandemic, we continue to prioritise our targets to end hunger and malnutrition through our Stronger Together collaborations to improve the SDGs.

I reflect on 2020 by expressing my appreciation for the Trustees, Global Advisory Council, Vice President and entire Wellbeing Foundation Africa management and frontline teams in Nigeria and Ghana. Our consistent purpose in implementing our mission to end preventable deaths of mothers and children, improving nutritional outcomes, increasing access to WASH, supporting families through the reproductive health and education journeys, promoting gender equity for all, is actualised – daily.

The 2021 Year Of Health And Care Workers finds us in our 17th year of dedicated philanthropic focus, extensive frontline programmatic actions and significant global, national and sub-national partnerships. I am pleased to share the 2020 Global Office & Philanthropy Annual Review.

Download the Report here.